Finance Advisory

A bank does not decline a proposal because the business is weak as often as it declines because the proposal does not answer the questions the credit committee is required to ask. The same is true of a subsidy sanctioning authority and, at larger scale, of an acquirer's diligence team.

This work is about putting a business's own numbers into the form in which the person on the other side of the table can act on them.

What the work covers

Project reports and detailed project reports. Preparation of the project report required for term loan sanction, subsidy application under central and state schemes, and internal investment decisions. Covers the technical and commercial description, cost of project and means of finance, projected financials, and the ratios the assessing institution works to.

CMA data. Preparation of credit monitoring arrangement data in the format banks require — past performance, projected performance, working capital assessment and fund flow — built from the audited record rather than from assumption.

Budgeting and projections. Operating budgets, cash flow forecasting and scenario comparison, structured so that a variance in the year can be traced to its cause.

Valuation support. Valuation for transaction, regulatory and internal purposes, using the methodology appropriate to the entity and the purpose. Where a valuation must be issued by a registered valuer under a specific statutory provision, that is identified at the outset rather than discovered later.

Due diligence support. Financial diligence on the buy side, and preparation of the record on the sell side. On the sell side, the work usually consists of finding and resolving what the other party's team would otherwise find first.

Working capital review. Assessment of the receivable, inventory and payable cycle, and of whether the existing facility structure matches how the business actually consumes cash.

Who this is relevant to

• Enterprises seeking term loan or working capital facilities
• MSMEs applying under subsidy schemes that require a project report and CA certification
• Businesses planning capacity expansion and needing the investment case set out before it is committed
• Owners preparing for a transaction, fundraise or partner exit
• Businesses that are profitable on paper but persistently short of cash — a pattern that is almost always a working capital structure problem rather than a margin problem

How the work runs

Understanding. What the document is for and who will read it. A project report for a subsidy sanctioning authority and one for a term loan committee share a spine but not an emphasis.

Base build. Historical financials normalised, one-off items identified, and the trend established on a comparable basis.

Projection. Assumptions built from operating drivers — capacity, utilisation, realisation, input cost — rather than from a growth percentage applied to last year. Each assumption is stated so that it can be questioned.

Presentation. The document assembled in the required format, with the supporting schedules and the sensitivity the reader will ask for.

A word on projections

Projections in a funding document should be defensible, not flattering. A projection that a business cannot subsequently meet does more damage than a conservative one, because the following year's renewal is assessed against it — and because a lender who has seen one over-optimistic projection discounts the next one.

Where the numbers required to make a proposal work are not numbers the business can realistically deliver, that is worth knowing before the application, not after.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a project report take?
Typically driven by how readily the underlying information is available. Where audited financials, capacity details and quotations for proposed plant are on hand, the drafting itself is not the bottleneck.

Will a project report guarantee sanction?
No. It ensures the proposal is complete, internally consistent and in the form the institution requires. The credit decision remains the lender's.

Do you provide registered valuer reports?
Valuation support is provided. Where a statutory provision requires the report to be issued by a registered valuer holding a specific registration, that requirement is identified at the start and the engagement scoped accordingly.

Can you prepare a project report for a subsidy application?
Yes — this is frequently undertaken alongside the subsidy claim work, since the scheme's own requirements determine the report's structure.

General information only. This page does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation on any financing decision.